1. Field of Invention
The invention is related to an adjustable height stove burner guard, which prevents small children from reaching the burners, control knobs and cookware on the stovetop. The guard also prevents small children from coming in contact with heated liquid or other foods that may bubble or splash from cookware on the stovetop. The height of the guard panel is adjustable to accommodate the height of the stove user and can be installed, adjusted or removed quickly and easily.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A patent application was filed by and awarded to the present inventor for a quick install/remove stove guard. The guard panel in the previous design consists of a one-piece sheet of material, and the width of the lower portion of the panel is reduced to fit the door handle of the oven door. The width of the lower portion of the guard panel can not be changed once the panel is made. This creates the possibility that the panel will not fit within some oven door handles, limiting the application of that stove guard design to certain types of the stoves. The new design solves this problem by using two clamping devices attached to the oven door handle. The guard panel is fastened to the clamping device through two vertical slots on the guard panel. The height of the guard panel can be adjusted through the vertical slots located on the lower bottom of the panel.
Other stove guards were invented in the prior art to prevent small children from reaching the stove burners, control knobs and cookware while cooking as listed on the following list:
4,157,705June 1979Caan4,517,955May 1985Ehrlich et al.4,836,181June 1989Saga5,546,928August 1996Lewis et al.5,758,636June 1998Butrimas et al.5,842,464December 1998Koch7,549,417June 2009Dang
Those devices described in the prior art often require complicated installation procedures. Once installed, the devices are difficult to remove for cleaning. In some cases, the guard panels are attached to the top of the stove surface, making the guard panel vulnerable to heat damage.
The complicated installing and removing devices referred to above make those guards less likely to be used on a regular basis when small children are present, and this departs from the purpose of the inventions. Therefore, new and improved stove guards are needed to overcome the disadvantages of the existing inventions. The current invention, like the June 2009 Dang patent addresses this need.